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Sixteen-year-old Katherine Thompson wasn’t trained to rule a coven. That was her sister – perfect, beautiful Rose. But when a mysterious plane crash kills off the heir presumptive of the Sandersville coven she has no choice.
After stepping in to fill her sister’s shoes, Katherine realizes she didn’t have a clue – faery wars, depressed trolls and angry unicorns are just the beginning.
For centuries, her family has served the high Queens on both sides of the Atlantic but it is a well-known rule that mid-level witches stay away from high-level Queens.
But when Katherine’s youngest cousin vanishes without a trace in the Atlanta court and no one wants to investigate, Katherine decides to step into the darkness on her own. She will soon discover that nothing, especially in a queen's court, is as it seems.

Note to self, book covers can deceive you, book blurbs can also deceive you.

This was 1.5 stars but only because I managed to finish it. Well I managed to read up to 70% then it was all skimming and skipping for the rest.

My main issues, including how this book was constructed. I thought the pace of the book was quite off, for example, in one particular scene the Queen was punishing someone in court, which suppose to be pretty serious and intense, then Katherine’s point of view interrupted the scene and proceed to give us a bunch of information and a stroll down memory lane. (What the…). In fact Katerine’s point of view would continue and frequently interfere with scenes throughout the book. (I don’t get it)

I also have a problem with how this book was written, so it was written in third-person view and of Katherine’s point of view. In one particular chapter the Queen’s character (Katherine’s mother) was referenced in three different ways. First it referenced her as Queen, then it was Leanna Thompson, and then it was something else that I can’t bother to remember. I was quite confused by the narrative’s voice.

I am not so sure if there was an actual plot, because basically the scenes would just jump from one to
another. It was not smooth, and the gaps in between scenes made it quite difficult to stay connected to the story. I remember reading about Katherine explaining in great detail about how much she hated her sister, Rose, then the next thing you know, Rose is dead. You would think that’s a big deal for the plot, however the book didn’t spend too much time on the issue. Because something else urgent has happened, that apparently was too important so no one would bother to investigate the accident behind the future Queen’s dead.

Katherine’s character was very hard to like, she was immature and whiny. Supposedly Katherine was powerful, and she would often talk about it. This would went on and on, she would explain the reason she lets her sister and classmates in school to bully her. Because she can never show her power, her magic was too powerful and she can’t control it. So for a while I thought no one really know what Katherine was capable of, after all, if she were indeed as fearsome as she claimed, wouldn’t her sister avoid to angry Katherine at all causes? But then at some point in the book the Queen warned Katherine not to use or show her power, which leads me to believe the Queen knew it well. And if the Queen knew the extend of Katherine’s power, wouldn’t her sister, Rose, aware of it as well?

I think I would’ve liked to learn more about Katherine’s power, and how she could utilize them. Her power was actually quite interesting, she can sense death, she can call upon death or something like that. Since the book never really bothers to explore and explain about her power, I wouldn’t know.

Instead, we were constantly told about how much Katherine hated everything and everyone. Her relationship with her mother was a strange one as well. I can’t tell if Katherine’s cousin Cecily was suppose to be someone important to the plot, she was there, then forgotten, then mentioned again when she went missing. And what about Ethan, Katherine’s ex-boyfriend, who appear in the midway or later in the book. Before that the book never even indicated Katherine had a boyfriend. And guess what, Ethan and Cecily were actually siblings, though not blood related. (Do you see the problem here??)

Overall, I didn’t like this book. I thought the writing was messy, the plot was unclear. Characters were not only unlikable, it was difficult to tell who was important by how they were each introduced in the book.

About Terah Edun

Terah Edun’s next YA Fantasy novel, BLADES OF MAGIC – Crown Service Book #1 (set in the
Algardis Universe), will release on March 31, 2014. Book Five of Courtlight, SWORN TO DEFIANCE, will release in April 2014.